Barça are in safe hands with Claudio Bravo and Marc-Andre ter Stegen
Without doubt, one of the challenges for the current season was to find a safe pair of hands to replace the outgoing Victor Valdes. And Claudio Bravo and Marc-Andre ter Stegen have ensured that challenge has been met with perfection.
In Barcelonismo there are still infinite debates, as is normal, but the goalkeeping situation in the first team is not one of them.
Andoni Zubizaretta, the club's now ex-sporting director, has been heavily criticised for his work in the transfer market, but he demonstrated his experience as a goalkeeper with these two signings. It will be one of the things he will be best remembered for, ensuring Valdes's departure wasn't as tramautic as his was in 1994.
Zubi took a bet on Ter Stegen as an option for the present, but above all as one for the future. He is a keeper of magnitude but also one with good feet who already understands how Barça play.
Luis Enrique asked for a second stopper, one with more experience and guaranteed to be ready to play immediately. Bravo, with many years of la Liga wisdom earned with Real Sociedad, offered those characteristics and Andoni signed him.
GOOD RESULTS
With the passing of time and some good performances, Luis Enrique and Zubizarreta have been justified. Bravo, the league keeper, and Ter Stegen, the Champions League and Copa stopper, have both been excellent.
-Bravo has played 20 games in the league and 14 of them yielded clean sheets (70 percent). He's currently only leaked nine goals, at an average of 0.45 per game. He leads the race for the Zamora Trophy in the Primera Division. His save percentage is 80 percent: He's had 138 shots on his goal, 45 of which have been on target and 36 of those have been saved.
-Ter Stegen has played 10 matches in Europe and the cup and has kept seven clean sheets (70 percent). He's conceded five goals (0.50 per game). The German keeper is similar to the Chilean is most aspects. His save percentage is 77.27 percent.
THE DILEMMA
It's clear that as the season grows older the biggest matches will hypothetically be the latter stages of the Champions League and the Copa del Rey, which presents the eternal dilemma: Should the keeper who has taken the team that far play -- like Jose Pinto under Guardiola, Vilanova and Martino -- or the one who has played the most games in la Liga?
For the moment, Ter Stegen looks assured of three big games: The return leg against Atletico Madrid on Wednesday and the two Champions League matches with Manchester City.
